Answer engine optimization
Schema, llms.txt, AI crawlers, and entity markup for answer engines.
Is AEO different from SEO?
Yes. SEO is ranking in a list of blue links. AEO is being the passage an engine lifts into an answer. The same URL can do well at one and badly at the other.
Do AI crawlers run JavaScript?
Most do not. GPTBot and ClaudeBot download the HTML the server sends. Google Search does render. A JavaScript-only page can rank on Google and still look empty to ChatGPT.
What answer engine optimization is, and how it differs from SEO
SEO is about ranking in a list of blue links. Answer engine optimization is about being the passage a model lifts into an answer. The same URL can rank on Google and still never be quoted in ChatGPT, because those products read different files and lift different shapes of text.
AEO work is about reachability and extractable blocks: can GPTBot download the HTML, is the first paragraph quote-sized, and is the claim marked as Q&A or a cited source. JSON-LD helps when it matches visible text. It does not place you in an answer on its own.
How these tools read your site
URL tools fetch the HTML as the server sends it, the same way GPTBot and ClaudeBot do. JavaScript is not executed. Google Search does render pages, so a client-only app can rank on Google and still look empty to ChatGPT. If the live view is a shell, paste the rendered HTML.
Fetch and crawl tools are five runs per hour per tool, keyed by your network. A private window does not reset the cap. Prompt lists, 5W1H, source blocks, robots groups, and Direct Answer Optimizer run locally and have no server cap.
The 12 tools
Diagnose: AI Citation Readiness (can a crawler reach and read the page), AEO On-Page Audit (is the writing structured to extract), AI Crawler Access (which named bots robots.txt admits), and AI Robots.txt (named groups do not inherit, so rules must be repeated).
Fix the page: Answer-First Rewriter (engines lift the first self-contained block), Direct Answer Optimizer (40 to 60 words is the extractable band), 5W1H Matrix (a silent Why gives nothing to quote), and Entity Density (placement in the title beats frequency in paragraph nine).
Mark it up and measure: FAQ Extractor (marked-up Q&A is machine-readable), Source Attribution Block (pages that cite sources are cited more often), llms.txt Builder (a curated summary beats a full index), and AI Prompt List Builder (visibility is measured by asking the engines).
Where to start
Run AI Citation Readiness first. If the HTML is empty, blocked, or under 100 words, the other eleven tools are grading a page the crawler never saw. Fix reachability, then audit the writing, then mark up and measure.
What none of these tools can do
None of them query ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity. Real citation tracking needs paid API access, or you paste prompts yourself and record mentions. They cannot prove a bot obeyed robots.txt or guarantee a citation.
FAQs
- Is AEO different from SEO?
- Yes. SEO is ranking in a list of blue links. AEO is being the passage an engine lifts into an answer. The same URL can do well at one and badly at the other.
- Do AI crawlers run JavaScript?
- Most do not. GPTBot and ClaudeBot download the HTML the server sends. Google Search does render. A JavaScript-only page can rank on Google and still look empty to ChatGPT.
- Will blocking GPTBot hurt my Google ranking?
- No. GPTBot is not Googlebot. AI Crawler Access and AI Robots.txt treat training tokens as a separate choice from Google Search.
- Do I need an llms.txt?
- No. Google Search does not use it. Some agents fetch /llms.txt if you publish one. A short curated file is more useful than a sitemap dump. Keep sitemap.xml either way.
- Can you tell me if ChatGPT cites my site?
- No. None of these tools query ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. Prompt List Builder writes questions you paste yourself. Real tracking needs paid API access.
- Which tool should I run first?
- AI Citation Readiness. If the crawler cannot read the page, the other tools are grading HTML the bot never saw. Diagnose, then fix the page, then mark it up.
- Does schema still matter for AI search?
- Yes, when it matches visible Q&A or a cited source. Empty FAQPage or schema that is not on the page does not help. Google FAQ rich results stay limited to government and health sites.
- Which tools stay in the browser?
- Prompt lists, 5W1H, source blocks, AI Robots.txt, and Direct Answer Optimizer. Fetch tools (Citation Readiness, On-Page Audit, Crawler Access, FAQ Extractor, Entity Density, llms.txt, Answer-First) are five runs per hour.